Samantha Kilpatrick has over 25 years of legal experience working closely with faith-based organizations in the areas of abuse prevention, policy review and institutional response, as well as other compliance and investigative matters. Ms. Kilpatrick currently leads the Faith-Based Organizations practice group which works with domestic and global religious institutions and parachurch organizations from all faiths and practices on a variety of cultural, compliance, and investigative matters.
Ms. Kilpatrick brings over two decades of experience working with survivors and churches. Ms. Kilpatrick is a former prosecutor with knowledge in matters of domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. Immediately prior to joining Guidepost, Ms. Kilpatrick was the founder and managing member of Kilpatrick Law Group, PLLC, where she advised and represented survivors of abuse as they navigated the criminal justice system and provided consulting for abuse awareness, prevention, and response for faith-based organizations. She has mentored pastors and lay leaders on how to care for survivors of abuse.
During her tenure with Guidepost, she has participated in high-profile compliance overviews and investigations of faith-based organizations where she has worked to identify, address, and correct issues related to sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and other forms of misconduct guided by trauma-informed principles within a faith-based context.
Ms. Kilpatrick is a Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFTA), licensed by the North Carolina Board of Marriage and Family Therapists. She is trained in trauma-informed practices and has an understanding of church culture, practice, and theology related abuse. In response to initiatives for sexual abuse reform, Ms. Kilpatrick recently assisted Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in designing a mandatory semester long course for students entitled Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response. She has also taught Legal Research and Writing and Criminal Law at Meredith College.
Ms. Kilpatrick has served on several faith-based non-profit boards and working groups, most notably the Southern Baptist Convention Church Cares team, where she was a contributor to the Caring Well curriculum.
Did you know?
Samantha learned to play tennis as an adult and was able to combine her love of the game and mentoring young women into coaching high school tennis for seven years.
